Scott R. Sullivan

June 14th, 2008 by Scott

Pennsylvania just passed a ban on smoking in most public places. It also imposed a $1,000 fine for offenders. They did this in the name of public health. Who can argue with that?

Now I’ve never smoked in my life. A few of my friends do. Most of them do not.

I am not going to dispute the harm of smoking. I know it is bad.

The problem is that congress knows it is bad for you, too. Yet, they tax it so much that they are making HUGE profits from someone’s addiction and unhealthy habit. How is it ethical to profit off of someone else’s cancer?

To me, there is one answer. Congress is just as addicted. Except they are addicted to the money they rake in from this poison.

Ethically, congress had only two options.

Option one, get rid of all cigarette taxes, thus getting rid of blood money. I’m all for congress reducing taxes in any form.

Option two, ban cigarettes altogether. Classify it along with Cocaine or Heroin and make it illegal. If tobacco is as bad as congress says it is, why don’t they just ban it all instead of doing this wimpy “no smoking here or here, but there is okay.”

Personally, I don’t care which option they take.

So the question is: Congress, can you kick your own addiction?

June 5th, 2008 by Scott

Let’s see:

• Gas prices falling (the price of a barrel of gas fell $9 in one day)
• Stocks are up on news of better than expected news from retailers (people are spending more)
• Unemployment is down 189,000 (latest number is 5% for April)
• GDP is up 0.9% in 2008 Q1 (up from 0.6% in 2007 Q4)

Not to mention that Iraq violence is at a four year low. The surge worked. Iraqis are taking control of their new democracy.

Yup. Times are getting better. Things are improving. I’ll admit, we’re not out of the tunnel yet, but the trends have already reversed and the upward trend is there.

My bet is that this trend will continue. By the time November rolls around, things will be even better. Which for the country is good. For the Democrats, who have invested in our defeat in Iraq, the collapse of our economy (remember the “Bush Recession” that was “right around the corner”).

Update: Well, it seems one day after I post, the unemployment rate rose to 5.5%. I still think in the long term, we’ll be well on our way to a full recovery by November. But only time will tell!

June 1st, 2008 by Scott

I was getting another cup of coffee this morning while waiting for an animation to render. Since my studio is downstairs, I had a chance to view the morning traffic outside the house.